“Your Paper, Your Way” simplifies submissions

Over 400 Elsevier journals now offer a simplified submission process where all the journal-specific formatting takes place after acceptance

By Catriona Fennell and Rebecca Barrie Posted on 1 March 2014

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Your Paper, Your Way – the origins

Over the past few years, a recurring plea arose from researchers to simplify the process of preparing and submitting papers. With every journal having different
technical and formatting requirements and many papers being submitted more than once before publication, you made it very clear that every hour wasted re-formatting was an hour taken from your research. In response to this frustration, Sir Kelvin Davies, PhD, DSc, Editor-in-Chief of Free Radical Biology & Medicine
introduced the Your Paper, Your Way initiative in mid-2011, as described in his video editorial.

Your Paper, Your Way – what it means

Your Paper, Your Way simplifies submission requirements so that authors can focus on what really matters: the science. Journal-specific
formatting such as reference style is no longer needed and you can upload your entire manuscript as a single PDF or MS Word file. Of course, the submission still needs to be structured and complete enough to allow editors and reviewers to assess the science. All ethical standards also need to be met
just as before. For further details, please visit: http://www.elsevier.com/yourpaperyourway

Following the lead of Free Radical Biology & Medicine, Elsevier proceeded to test the new process across different scientific fields and in journals with varying editorial workflows. Having now done so with 439 journals of all shapes and sizes, we are excited to share the results.

What authors say

The authors of 51.5% of submissions chose to submit via the Your Paper, Your Way route. We expect this figure to increase further as more authors become aware of the service. Authors commented: "We chose to spend time on content instead of the 'correct format'." "It was simpler and faster than (the)
traditional one. I think it is a good way to speed the process." "…time consuming formatting work was not undertaken unnecessarily." "I didn't have to waste time with formatting before being sure about the acceptance." To find out if your journal of interest already offers the service, check out
its Guide for Authors on www.elsevier.com.

76% of authors surveyed believed that YPYW reduces the amount of time typically taken to format and submit their paper

92% of authors surveyed found YPYW easy or extremely easy, compared to 61% of authors who used the traditional process.

And editors...

After some months of experience with the new service, we asked editors to share their thoughts. Based on 84 responses, 80% of editors surveyed found that Your Paper, Your Way manuscripts require less or the same amount of time as traditional submissions, with comments such as: "Great feature and very
helpful for authors." "Highly recommend to do this."

But what about the reviewers?

Given that the peer-review process largely depends on the goodwill of reviewers, it is of course vital that the simplified requirements don't hamper their role in way. To evaluate the impact on reviewers, 870 responses from Elsevier's existing Reviewer Feedback Programme (RFP) were analyzed, of which
346 related to a Your Paper, Your Way submission. There were no significant differences in reviewer satisfaction based on responses to the questions: "The review format and structure for review submission was helpful"; "I am very satisfied overall with my experience of reviewing"; "I could read the manuscript
and figures clearly with no technical problems".

What's next for Your Paper, Your Way?

Already offered by 439 Elsevier journals across all disciplines, we will continue to expand this service to more journals over the course of 2014. And of course, we are always interested in hearing from authors on further ways to make the publication process as painless as possible!

Author biographies

Following graduation from University College Galway, Ireland, Catriona Fennell joined Elsevier as a Journal Manager in 1999. She later had the opportunity to support and train hundreds of editors during the introduction of the Elsevier Editorial System (EES). Since then, she has worked in various management roles in STM Journals' Publishing and as Director of Publishing Services she is now responsible for Elsevier's author-centricity and publishing ethics programs.

Rebecca Barrie works as Publishing Processes Manager in the Publishing Services department within STM Journals. She has been with Elsevier since 2006 and has worked in a variety of roles in that time, including over 3 years as a Publisher in Physical Sciences. In her current role she focusses on improving both internal and external publishing processes to ensure that Elsevier is able to deliver the best services to our editors and authors.